Frogger Returns now on WiiWare

Konami Digital Entertainment’s Frogger Returns is now available on Nintendo WiiWare. The latest game in the classic arcade game series starring the road crossing frog now comes in a downloadable format and challenges players to safely deliver Frogger to his destination in a new 3D world.

In Frogger Returns, players must employ dodge-and-run techniques in order to help Frogger out of the busy city and back into the marshland. Gamers must also avoid the hectic streets, sewers and subways that obstruct Frogger’s path home. By utilizing new power-ups including time freeze, invincibility and time reverse, players can manipulate the various environments to make it home alive. How Frogger got these powers is a complete mystery, but hey maybe it will save him from becoming a red and green splotch on a busy city street.

Frogger Returns is available now for download on Nintendo WiiWare for 500 points, and will be available later this month on the PlayStation Network for $4.99.

Console Classix re-launches

File this one under “sounds questionably legal,” but Console Classix, a site dedicated to providing classic gaming to the masses, has re-launched with an improved user interface, additional video game platforms supported and a library of more than 3,000 classic console games. This library includes games for the Sega Genesis, NES, Super Nintendo, ColecoVision, Atari 2600, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. A free version of Console Classix is now available, which includes access to hundreds of Nintendo (NES), Atari 2600, and ColecoVision games.

To access the additional classic console video games you’ll have to pay a subscription fees of $5.99 per month or $59.99 annually.

A Good Old Games Revolution

Good Old Games, the DRM-free online source for classic PC games, announced that it has added several of Revolution Software’s adventure games from the popular Broken Sword series. The first games to be available on the site include Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror and Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon. Also available from GOG and Revolution Software are the classic point-and-click adventure games Beneath a Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress.

All of these games retail for $5.99 each and are fully compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Find out more at gog.com. It’s as good a way to ring in the new year as any, my friends. Now if only they would bring Gothic 2 into the fold..

These Are The Good Old Games…

Have you ever wanted to go back to 1993? How about the 80’s? Remember when PC games ruled the world and SSI made the best role-playing games? For all you oldsters out there, CD Projekt RED may have the best portal ever conceived: Good Old Games. Good old games is a new service that plans to bring back the classics for a low price-point, let you have unfettered access to them and run them on modern operating systems like Windows XP and Vista.

The games will be sold for $5.99 or $9.99, are “guaranteed” to work on Windows Vista and Windows XP and will be available to download as many times as needed. The DRM-free, low prices, ease-of-use and community are the mantras being chanted by the portal’s creators. GOG has already lined up a number of publishers, delivering such classic hits as Fallout, Freespace 2, Operation Flashpoint: Game of the Year Edition and TOCA Race Driver 3. The site also promises free extras like wallpapers, MP3s and more. The goal, as the portal moves forward, is to sign as many publisher deals as iyt takes to give members access to the best games from the 80s, 90s and 2000s.

A closed public beta of the site is scheduled for launch on August 1st, which you can sign up for now at www.gog.com.

Dirk the Daring Seeks Publisher for PSP

It’’s been nearly 25 years since Dirk the Daring first swung his sword in arcades during the days of Dragon’’s Lair. Say what you will about the gameplay, but there’’s no denying that Don Bluth’’s debut foray into the videogame industry sucked down more than its share of quarters and made its mark on gamers everywhere. In fact, Dragon’’s Lair is one of only three videogames on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institution, standing alongside Pac-Man and Pong. Now Dirk is looking to hit the road with Dragon’’s Lair on the PSP. There’’s just one thing missing: a publisher.

United Coders, developers of the Nintendo DS version of the game, is currently on the hunt for a publisher for its PSP version of Dragon’s Lair. According to a press release from the developer, In exchange for funding the development and intellectual property cost of Dragon’s Lair for Sony PSP, the publisher will be granted the global publishing rights for the format. United Coders expect to begin development of Dragon’s Lair for Sony PSP in February with a release date of Christmas 2008 on the platform.

So, what will gamers (as a potential publisher) be able to expect from the PSP version of Dragon’’s Lair? According to Hans Olsen, the Executive Producer and Lead Programmer on Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, From a player’s perspective you can choose to play an arcade accurate version simply called Arcade mode, or you can opt to play the more unique Director’s Cut mode. The Arcade mode is exactly what its name implies: a genuine arcade accurate version of the 1983 arcade game with LEDs for scores, featuring the same semi-randomness of the scenes being played. The Arcade mode was implemented to maintain the current hardcore fan base of Dragon’s Lair, which is quite large, and because and there has never been the arcade version of the game has never been ported to a handheld.

Olsen says the Director’s Cut mode features five lives instead of the typical three lives in Arcade mode. Other differences include extra cut scenes, such as a scene in which Dirk the Daring crosses a drawbridge to escape being killed by tentacles. Olsen says, This video footage existed in 1983 but was never used in the North American version, only in the European version of the arcade.

Well, if issuing a press release doesn”t work for getting a publisher, there’’s always Craigslist. You can find just about anything there.